Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — The first round of the North Coast Section baseball playoffs were not kind to the H-DNL, with just two teams remaining in contention for a Section championship.

The league’s softball teams, however, fared better with five of the six schools to qualify still alive heading into the weekend quarterfinals.

In baseball, Big 5 champion McKinleyville won its Division-2 opener against California 2-1 at Mack High on Wednesday.

The win sets up a home quarterfinal for the top seeds in the division against No. 8 Bishop O’Dowd on Saturday afternoon at 1.

The St. Bernard’s Crusaders, who are the top seeds in Division 4, had an opening-round bye and will begin their playoff campaign at home against No. 9 Pinole Valley on Saturday afternoon at 2.

The other four H-DNL teams to make this year’s baseball playoffs all fell at the first hurdle on Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Tuesday, in Division-5 action, No 4 Ferndale lost 7-3 at No. 13 St. Patrick-St. Vincent.

In the Division-2 bracket on Wednesday,  the No. 15 Eureka Loggers lost 11-1 in five innings at No. 2 Northgate in a game that was close throughout before getting away from them late, while in Division 4, No. 12 Del Norte traveled to play No. 4 Newark Memorial and lost a close one, 4-3.

Rounding out the local contingent of baseball teams in action, on Wednesday No. 12 South Fork lost 4-2 at No. 5 College Prep.

The losses end the season for Ferndale, Del Norte, Eureka and South Fork.

In the softball playoffs, meanwhile, the Hoopa girls also lost their NCS opener on Tuesday.

The Little 4 runners-up, who were seeded No. 9, traveled to play No. 8 San Domenico and lost a high-scoring one-run game 11-10.

The win for the San Domenico girls sets up a Saturday afternoon quarterfinal showdown at top-seeded Eureka, which had an opening-round bye.

The Del Norte girls were also in action on Tuesday in Division 4.

The No. 4 seeded Warriors shut out No. 13 Ukiah 8-0 to set up a home quarterfinal against No. 12 Analy on Friday evening at 5.

On Wednesday evening, the South Fork girls won their playoff opener, defeating Kennedy 10-3.

The Little 4 champs, who are seeded No. 4 in the bracket, will host No. 5 Moreau Catholic on Saturday afternoon at 1, with the winner of that game advancing to play either Eureka or San Domenico in next week’s semifinals.

Baseball

McKinleyville 2, California 1

Fresh off their Lakin tournament championship on Friday, the Panthers continued to roll in their NCS playoff opener in front of their home fans on Wednesday evening.

But they had to battle against a school of almost 3,000 students, with little to separate the two teams for much of the game.

Blake Santos opened McKinleyville’s account in the bottom of the second inning with a hard-hit ball past third base to score Rhythm Green.

Joe Tanno, who pitched a complete game for the win, added an insurance run an inning later, hitting a double to bring home Pat Wilson for what would prove to be the winning run.

The visitors would respond almost immediately with a run of their own in the top of the fourth, but with both pitchers in control and their defenses making the plays behind them, that would prove to be the end of the scoring and the Panthers held on for the narrow victory.

“That was a good game,” McKinleyville head coach Mike Dobrec said. “That’s playoff baseball.”

The Panthers had opportunities to add to their early advantage but stranded five runners — four in scoring position — in the second and third innings combined.

And that almost proved costly.

Senior Thomas Casserly took over on the hill for California in the bottom of the third, and after allowing the first batter he faced to reach base on a hit-by-pitch he would record 12 straight outs to close out the game.

But Tanno and his defense were every bit as effective and the two runs would prove to be just enough to see the Panthers over the finish line.

“I thought we played good baseball today,” Dobrec said. “Joe came out and had all three of his pitches working for him, and he threw good, and we played defense behind him.”

California’s only run of the game was unearned.

At the plate, Wilson finished 1-for-3 with a double and a run, while Tanno also was 1-for-3 with a double and the RBI.

Santos also was 1-for-3 with his RBI, while Green was 1-for-2 with the run.

Hunter Carper (1-for-2) and Bode Reininger (1-for-3) rounded out a six-hit team performance.

Tanno pitched all seven innings on just 81 pitches and gave up just three hits while striking out five.

Santos also made two big catches in right field to highlight the impressive defense.

“I thought as a team we played very well,” Dobrec said. “We came together and we made the plays. We’re a tough team to beat when we play defense.”

With the win, the Panthers improved to 24-2.

Northgate 11, Eureka 1, 5 innings

The Loggers led early after a third-inning Garrett Levitt solo home run, but the game got away from them after the home team scored eight runs in the bottom of the fifth to take control.

Junior Ryder Mitchell pitched 4.2 innings for the loss, but threw well and did his best to keep his team in the game, allowing just four earned runs.

“The scoreboard doesn’t really tell the picture,” Eureka head coach Tommy Gale said. “It was a close game for most of the game.

“It kind of fell apart in the fifth inning. That’s when the game got away from us, but other than that I thought we played well.”

Mitchell got the start on the hill and gave up nine hits and two walks while striking out four.

“Ryder Mitchell had a heck of a start,” Gale said. “He did give us a chance to win, He kept us in the ball game.”

Four Eureka errors didn’t help matters.

The Loggers were also out-hit 10-4.

In addition to Levitt’s big blast, the top of the order came through for the Eureka boys.

Bryson Burns and Mitchell each finished 1-for-3, while Jesse Vasquez was 1-for-1.

The Loggers closed out an impressive season 20-8 and finished second in both the Big 5 and Charles Lakin Tournament.